Author: dmarty

The first goal of this last week was getting ready for the final presentation. I primarily worked on creating diagrams for our updated algorithm and hardware setup.

These diagrams will also go into our final report.

We finished up an initial round of testing and calibration last week, but we want to continue to do so in the coming week. We finalized on a privacy concerns survey and sent it out this week. I looked over the comments made on the design report and want we need to improve on for the final report.

Next week the primary goals are finish up calibration and testing and finish writing up the final report. We also hope to receive sufficient results from our survey.

I worked on getting two way communication with the ESPs on the work stations and the raspberry pi. The lights are now turned on by a message being sent to them with mosquitto protocol. I integrated the weight messages from and to the web app into the raspberry pi’s base station code. When the weight is changed on the sliding bar of the web app, the raspberry pi changes the weights it uses for the pir and mic data. The raspberry pi keeps track of its default values incase the web app switches back to manual.

WEIGHT:AUTO/Manual:PIR weight:Mic weight

The raspberry pi sends back its current weights to the web app when the web app switches back to auto mode. When it is in manual the web app already knows the weight values.

We were able to scale up to 3 base stations this week, but we are missing a PIR for the 4th base station.

We started some testing, but still have to get some done before the final presentation after thanksgiving. We did tests that allowed us to modify the threshold for the microphones and the PIRs, to pick up reasonable values (reasonable level of sensitivity).

The tests that we still need to be conducted:

-All combinations of people 4 at 4 base stations. i.e. (people at 1, people at 1 &2, people at 1&2&3, people at 1&2&3&4, people at 2&3, …)

-No movement tests

-No noise tests

I was able to get the sensor data sending directly from two microcontroller to the raspberry pi by the demo on Monday. We were also able to able to scale up to two base stations.  Malavika and I worked on sending and receiving multiple kinds of messages from the web app to the raspberry pi base station. My role was to integrate the messages into the logic of the raspberry pi base station.

The messages we are able to send from the web app to the raspberry pi base station are the following:

STATION:ON/OFF:Station Number 

Station Number (1,2,3,4 or 5 (all stations))

On – force station to remain on regardless of the sensor data

Off – go back to just working with the sensor data

MICS:ON/OFF

On – use mic data

Off – ignore mic data

PIRS:ON/OFF

On – use pir data

Off – ignore pir data

WEIGHT:AUTO/Manual:PIR weight:Mic weight

This is the only one not yet implemented 

It allows the user to set the weight of pir data and mic data manual if they wish too

The messages we are able to send from the raspberry pi base station to the web app are the following:

STATION:ON/OFF:Station Number 

Station Number (1,2,3,4)

This message is sent from the raspberry pi base station to the web app when a station on/off state changes.

WEIGHT:AUTO/Manual:PIR weight:Mic weight

This is the only one not yet implemented 

Send the current weights of pir and mic data either when prompted or when changed.

I was also able to the the lights working by adding a transistor.

Next week the main goal would be to scale up to 4 base stations and figure out the weights of the sensors and placement of the sensors. We also need to send user privacy concern surveys.

This week I worked on integrating the sensor values into the code I wrote last week.

As a group we debugged getting messages sent from the web app to the raspberry pi using mosquitto protocol. After testing the microphones we decided on using the one with a potentiometer that controls the “sound” threshold and output a digital signal. It seems sensitive enough for our test case and provides the most reliable data. It also allows us to insure anonymity and privacy. We are currently able to send appropriate sensor data to a LED on the board that represents a base station.

For the interim demo: I have a working station that sends signals to the raspberry pi and for which the raspberry pi behave accordingly. I almost have the sensor data being sent directly from a microcontroller to the raspberry pi, but I hope to finalize that tomorrow (Sunday) before the demos on Monday. Next week I hope for us to be able to scale up to at least two base stations, start placing the various sensors around the room, and more elaborately incorporating the options from the web app.

This week Ryan and I worked on testing receiving input data from two different microcontrollers connected to different sensors. In the picture below you will see the two microcontrollers both sending data being received from two opposite facing PIR sensors. Next week, we need to make sure that the IDs of the microcontrollers are recognized by the base station.

I worked on looking for new microphones and ordering them. We ordered three types of microphones. Amongst these microphones, we have another copy of the previous type microphone in case the lack of signal (even after soldering) was due to a defect.  We will test them early next week.

I also worked on writing a threading script in python that works with simulated sensor data. Based on incoming sensor values, the thread corresponding to a work station modifies the work station’s score.

I implemented this in code:

The code is here

The code works, but the score values are random, so next week I want figure out a logic behind the score constants and timeout constants. I also want to have some idea of potential microphone thresholds from the new microphones we have ordered. In addition, I want to talk  through the web app with Malavika to figure out what other inputs the base station’s code needs to account for.

This week in class we were focused on the ethics assignments. Outside of class I worked on microphone testing with our adafruit SPW2430. The preliminary testing is hopeful, but I was unable to get a working soldering machine, so the connection is not very accurate, so hopefully after soldering we will get even better results. The microcontrollers and raspberry pi have been registered with the cmu wifi, but we are still working out some connection issues. This step is necessary before we try to combine the two types of data.  The tests were run with an arduino in order to have an analog port to test with. The wifi microcontroller have analog ports, but for inital testing it is not necessary to run it over wifi.     This is an example of the results from one of the tests:

The tests account for the DC voltage bias. We had hope to be connected our different sensor data this week, but we are not too far off from our expected timeline.

This week I primarily worked on the Introduction, Design Requirements, Architectural Overview and System Description of the design report. I spend the majority of the time thinking through the Software Design of our system and the interfacing between the sensors and the software. 

I also helped with the testing of the PIR sensors during lab.

Next week I plan to work on a lot on testing, and particularly focusing on the microphones, to determine false positives, reasonable thresholds, etc. I hope to also start combining the data from the PIR sensors with the microphone in some preliminary tests.

This week I was primarily focused on writing up the Design Proposal Report. I wrote out the Abstract, Introduction, and Design Requirements Sections.

Next week we plan on testing the PIR sensors to  verify our formation, and include it as part of our preliminary testing for our Design Proposal Report . We are still waiting on the microphones. With the Design Proposal Report being due on Wednesday that is my primary focus this week.

Diva and I ordered the parts for our project and looked into the wifi capabilities of the Raspberry Pi.

This week we worked together on finalizing our presentation and ordering the parts we needed. We continued to research parts and tools such as the beam forming and comparing various types of microphones.